Chapter 165: 163 Fierce Battle

More than ten thousand government troops withdrew with their baggage; they certainly abandoned the few antique mortars, but they had the time to carry off the two Folangji cannons.

These things are light and can be dismantled — five or six men can march with one cannon.

Hearing the charge horn from the rebel camp, Li Maofang immediately gave the order: "Abandon the baggage, march to that hill ahead and form ranks, scattering coin and grain along the way. Remember, scatter plenty of copper cash and broken silver!"

Though the government officers were reluctant, the battle had reached a critical moment, so they had no choice but to scatter the silver they had looted.

Seeing that the enemy had actually run off to the hill to form ranks, Zhao Han also halted the charge horn and sounded the call to assemble and form ranks, advancing slowly toward the enemy on the slope.

At the top of the slope, Li Ruolian was utterly shocked: "These bandits don't even want silver!"

Li Maofang was equally alarmed. He had intended to scatter the silver and cash to disrupt the rebels' formation and morale, then use his superior numbers to charge in and finish them.

This tactic worked extremely well against rebels; Li Maofang had used it successfully several times before.

But he never expected that Zhao Han's soldiers, marching in tight formation across ground strewn with silver and cash, would not have a single man bend down to pick any up!

Everyone has selfish desires, and Zhao Han's soldiers were no exception.

But all spoils must be turned over to the common fund — this was something the propaganda officers had hammered home again and again. In private, a soldier might hide something and not hand it over, but picking up money on the battlefield — who wouldn't see that? The silver you picked up wouldn't be yours anyway, and you'd face military justice on top of it. Any soldier with a normal brain knew what choice to make.

Although they had lost a few mortars, at this very moment, the situation actually favored the government troops.

Before, with Zhao Han holding the fortified camp, the government troops had to slowly fill in the trenches, then assault the rebel stockade — and there were more trenches inside the camp, with archers whose arrows alone would give the government troops a bellyful.

Now, however, the government troops held the high ground, and Zhao Han was leading his men in an uphill assault against the hill!

Li Maofang, greedy and insatiable though he was, still knew how to fight a battle. After deploying his troops, he suddenly raised his sword and shouted: "Pass on my order: for every rebel killed, a reward of five taels of silver. For killing a rebel officer, ten taels. For killing a rebel commander, one hundred taels. Whoever can capture or kill the two bandits Zhao Yan and Zhao Yaonian — a reward of one thousand taels!"

In Li Maofang's hands, silver had endless uses.

It could be scattered to harass the rebel formation. It could be used for bounties to boost his own side's morale. It could feed his superiors and colleagues, making everyone speak on his behalf, so that even if a lawsuit reached the Emperor himself, he would have nothing to fear.

Li Maofang was very clever; he was no fool who just hoarded silver for himself.

In his view, if silver could not be put to use, it was no different from a rock.

The moment the bounty was announced, the government troops' morale soared. Moreover, with their superior numbers — more than three times Zhao Han's force — their dismay at their naval forces being driven off was momentarily diluted.

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"Quickly, assemble the Folangji cannons! Archers forward, shoot down the bandits!" Li Maofang shouted.

The government troops had only a little over five hundred archers, originally deployed on the war junks and now transferred to land to shoot the rebels.

Zhao Han's one thousand archers also spread out into a loose formation and advanced.

Huang Shun and Li Zheng each led five hundred men, circling toward the enemy's two flanks, waiting for the right moment to launch an attack.

"Thwip, thwip, thwip!"

The two sides' archers exchanged fire — one side holding the high ground, the other with greater numbers.

Fei Yinggong was now a hundred-man archer captain, and this fellow didn't even use the same bow as the others; his was the regulation one-dan bow used for the military examinations.

One arrow shot, and it struck an officer dead-on — Fei Yinggong made a point of picking off the officers.

Xiong Yao, however, used a seven-dou bow and shot in volley with the common soldiers. He aimed for an enemy's head but drove his arrow into the man's calf instead.

"Company Commander Zheng, go charge the bandits' archers!" Li Maofang shouted.

That Company Commander Zheng, leading five hundred men, seized the gap while the archers were restringing their bows and charged down, steeling himself for the task.

Signal flags waved, and Jiang Dashan and Jiang Liang each led five hundred men forward to meet them.

The archers on both sides pulled back, and fifteen hundred close-combat troops tangled together in a melee. Zhao Han's central force was left with just over a thousand men, with five hundred on each flank having circled out.

"First six pickets, all out — kill the bandits!"

Li Maofang seized the moment and immediately launched an attack. He felt that with his advantage in numbers, he could simply bury the rebels under a mountain of men.

Li Ruolian also shouted: "Encircle and destroy the bandits' central force!"

The two men's thinking was identical: they considered Zhao Han utterly brainless — his forces were already insufficient, yet he had actually split his troops to circle toward the flanks.

Zhao Han's central force would very soon be surrounded by government troops several times its own number.

Zhao Han laughed and said to Fei Ruhe, "I'll take the left, you take the right. We'll form ranks together and serve as bait."

"No problem," Fei Ruhe said.

The one thousand archers, after pulling back, loosed indirect volleys at the charging government main force.

One volley of arrows killed or wounded only a few dozen government soldiers, yet it directly caused one of the government's thousand-man picket units to collapse.

"Those who flee the field — executed!"

Li Ruolian personally led the execution squad, standing at the rear and cutting down the fleeing soldiers.

After more than ten men were cut down in succession, these routed soldiers howled and turned back around to charge at the rebels.

On the two flanks, Huang Shun and Li Zheng received their orders and immediately charged. Li Maofang hurriedly detached four pickets to meet them. This meant that Huang Shun and Li Zheng, each leading five hundred men in a flanking attack, would each face four times their number of government troops.

Zhao Han carefully observed the enemy situation and said to Zhang Tieniu, "That picket under the government 'Wang' banner — their formation fell apart after just a few steps forward. Cut straight through them and go for the enemy's central command."

"Slave Army, follow me — kill!"

Zhang Tieniu, leading several hundred Slave Army soldiers and gripping two axes, charged out.

Zhao Han and Fei Ruhe, with the remaining soldiers, each formed ranks and charged into the frontal battlefield to reinforce Jiang Dashan and Jiang Liang. Together they numbered only two thousand men, nearly half-encircled by the government troops, forming a circular formation to hold off over six thousand government soldiers.

There were no reserves left; Zhao Han himself had personally thrown himself into the fight.

Though it looked fiercely fought, the actual intensity of battle was not high.

The wolf-brush soldiers were in front, holding up branched bamboo poles with iron spikes tied to the branches. They simply thrust and jabbed wildly with the wolf brushes, making it nearly impossible for enemies three meters away to get close. The few who managed to break through were blocked by rattan-shield bearers raising their shields, while the pikemen behind seized the chance to thrust out.

It was like facing a turtle — they could not find a place to sink their teeth in.

Over six thousand government troops encircled and attacked two thousand rebels. After half a quarter-hour of fighting, the rebels had lost only three men, while the government troops had been stabbed to death by the dozens.

The main reason was that those motley government soldiers, faced with the wolf brushes, shrank back and dared not throw their lives away charging in. Most of the government troops were like men sleepwalking across the battlefield, utterly clueless about what they were supposed to do.

Fei Yinggong and the one thousand archers, having pulled back, kept shooting arrows, loosing indirect volleys straight into the packed mass of government troops, sending men at the rear of the government force fleeing in a constant stream.

Li Maofang waved his signal flags and dispatched a reserve unit, intending to circle around and attack the archers. But then he saw Zhang Tieniu and Liu Zhu, leading Zhao Han's personal Slave Army troops, cut all the way through the "Wang" banner unit — the Company Commander surnamed Wang was so terrified he turned and fled.

Zhang Tieniu's left arm had been slashed, and his right leg grazed by a pike, yet this man charged forward undaunted and split that Company Commander's skull with a single axe-blow.

That Company Commander was a Chiliarch recruited by Li Ruolian. He had never fought a battle, and under his command were nothing but feeble guard-station soldiers who had just set down their hoes. They could not even form ranks without tottering — how could they withstand Zhang Tieniu's desperate charge?

Zhang Tieniu, however, was a strange one. In any fight, large or small, he invariably took multiple wounds; it would actually be more surprising if he came through unscathed.

Look at Liu Zhu beside him — charging just as fiercely at the very front, yet the clothes on his back were not even torn.

"Kill!"

Seeing Zhang Tieniu driving straight for the central army, Li Maofang urgently diverted the reserve force he had sent to kill the archers, throwing them in to plug the gap on the battlefield. He also committed another picket, hoping to surround Zhang Tieniu and finish him.

The two sides were now completely tangled together, making it impossible for the archers to shoot.

"Follow me — kill!"

Fei Yinggong threw aside his bow, drew his own sword, and led his hundred-man company into close combat.

The nearly two thousand soldiers centered on Zhao Han were now entirely encircled by over six thousand government troops.

Yet a clear boundary ringed the center — a zone of wolf-brush spears over three meters long. The vast majority of the government troops were blocked outside that bristling hedge, too afraid to charge in.

This formed three concentric circles on the battlefield. The innermost circle was the two thousand righteous soldiers commanded by Zhao Han and Fei Ruhe. The middle ring was formed by wolf-brush spears and long pikes. The outermost ring was over six thousand government troops in a sleepwalking daze.

After all this time besieged by over six thousand government troops, the righteous army's casualties still stood in the single digits.

When Fei Yinggong charged in with his hundred-man company, those archers, having discarded their bows, fought with daggers. But this combined strike from within and without sent over a thousand government troops collapsing in rout.

Apart from a small reserve force, Li Maofang and Li Ruolian had now completely lost control of the government army.

Again and again they ordered their trumpeters and signal-flag soldiers to relay the command to split off forces and attack the rebel archers. Yet those six thousand government troops at the front knew only to stupidly besiege the enemy's central force. Unable to break in, they simply stood there dumbly outside. Out of every ten government soldiers, only one or two ever actually engaged the enemy.

"A rabble — an utter rabble!"

Li Maofang was so furious he stamped his feet. If only he had been given one more year to train a few thousand true elite troops, it would never have come to this sorry spectacle.

Seeing Fei Yinggong's surprise attack succeed, the other archers likewise threw aside their bows, drew their daggers, and ran into the fray.

On the left flank, Li Zheng, leading five hundred soldiers, suddenly routed government troops four times their number. What was more, those government troops collapsed without the slightest warning, giving Li Maofang no time to send his reserves to the rescue.

That was because the bulk of those two thousand government troops were village braves recruited by the Prefect of Linjiang, with the rest being able-bodied men picked from the labor conscripts — their fighting ability was only good for bullying peasants.

At first, with overwhelming numbers, they had besieged Li Zheng's five hundred soldiers. After fighting half the day to no effect, they instead had several dozen of their own skewered to death by Li Zheng. Once their casualties neared a hundred, those two thousand rabble scattered in an instant. And, fearing the provost marshals, they dared not flee back toward their commander; they routed directly toward the Gan River.

Li Zheng immediately led his troops charging toward the enemy commander. Zhang Tieniu also fought his way through and rushed over. Fewer than a thousand rebels now bore down on the government army's main central formation, which still held the advantage in numbers.

At this sight, Li Maofang mounted his horse and fled — what did he care for his grand army now?

Li Ruolian froze for a moment. This sixty-nine-year-old Regional Commander of Jiangxi then hastily mounted his horse and slipped away as well.

Though warhorses were scarce among the government troops, the two commanders certainly had theirs.

The moment they fled, the government army's central formation collapsed at once — because reserves had been continually dispatched, there had been hardly any soldiers left in the central force to begin with.

"Kill!"

Zhang Tieniu, already wounded in five places by now, led his slave-soldier corps in relentless pursuit.

Li Zheng, however, did not continue the chase. He turned his troops around and fought his way back to relieve Huang Shun on the right flank. Huang Shun was up against a tough nut and was still locked in a grinding fight there.

As for the encircled Zhao Han and Fei Ruhe, they did not need Li Zheng to rescue them at all.

The six thousand government troops could not break in, and with a thousand archers attacking them from behind, they were effectively counter-encircled. Even before Li Maofang and Li Ruolian fled, those six thousand government troops had already begun to scatter; now they collapsed along the entire line.

The entire battle, counting from the opening exchange of archer fire, lasted roughly twenty-five minutes.

What followed was pursuit of the enemy and taking of prisoners.

The post-battle tally: on Zhao Han's side, 41 killed in action, 18 severely wounded, and over a hundred lightly wounded.

Moreover, the heaviest casualties were not suffered by the central force besieged by six thousand government troops, nor from the archer exchange, but by Zhang Tieniu's slave-soldier corps, who had led the charge.

That fellow had abandoned all defense, simply killing his way forward without pause, until the reserves Li Maofang sent out dared not even step forward to engage.

As for the government side, counting the labor conscripts, over sixteen thousand men in all had taken the field. Yet the number of government troops shot dead or killed in direct combat was actually fewer than seven hundred.

An utterly absurd set of figures: over twenty thousand men on both sides combined had fought a battle, and those truly slain in direct engagement totaled less than a thousand — and then the outcome was decided in a flash.

It was even impossible to tell whether the two commanders, Li Maofang and Li Ruolian, fled first, or whether the main body of government troops on the front line broke first.

During the pursuit, on the other hand, several hundred government troops were stabbed to death, and over a thousand who leaped into the river to escape were drowned — casualties more than double those of the direct engagement.

Neither Zhao Han nor Fei Ruhe had any chance to display their personal martial prowess; they spent the entire time directing the defensive battle.

A long while later, Zhang Tieniu came back leading a warhorse, a severed head dangling from his hand. Covered in blood from head to toe, he said with a laugh, "Hacked down a Battalion Commander. Tough luck for him — fell off his horse and broke his leg."

Zhao Han said, exasperated, "How many wounds this time?"

"No idea," Zhang Tieniu was still grinning. "Don't you worry, brother. I'm no fool — think I'd let anyone strike my vitals?"

Zhao Han gazed at the prisoners being marched back in batches — several thousand of them — and in his heart he had already made his decision.

From these prisoners, he would select those with fewer misdeeds to join the army; the rest would all be thrown into the mines. The newly seized iron mountain was in desperate need of miners.

The Governor of Jiangxi, Li Maofang, and the Regional Commander of Jiangxi, Li Ruolian, had only two or three personal retainers each at their side. With Jiangxi so crisscrossed by rivers, they could not even gallop on horseback; they often rode a stretch, walked a stretch, and had to circle around the waterways.

A journey of over two hundred li took the two men nearly ten days on horseback before they finally reached the opposite bank of the river from Nanchang city.

Crossing the river and making inquiries, they learned that Wang Siren's naval force had suffered a crushing defeat.

(End of Chapter)